(BA) (4-year-programme) - The University of Hong Kong

87textual strategies. Students will also be introduced to a number of foundational concepts of criticaland cultural theory.Note: Students who want to major or minor in Comparative Literature are required to takeCLIT1008 or CLIT1009 or CLIT1010.Assessment: 100% coursework.CLIT1009.Introduction to postcolonialism and culture (6 credits)Through film and literature, this course introduces theoretical approaches to cultural issues inconnection with colonial and postcolonial experiences. We will analyze cultural representations andissues of identity politics, such as the orientalist imagination and the nationalist imagination of culture,history and gender, as well as challenges to such imaginaries. We will also learn how to analyze thetraumatic experience of racial and sexual discrimination under conditions of colonialism, slavery,exile and poverty, and the possibilities of survival and resistance. Texts from cultures that haveundergone multiple colonial experiences will allow students to think also on the issue of inter-racialrelations not just between the West and the rest, but also among peoples of colour.Note: Students who want to major or minor in Comparative Literature are required to takeCLIT1008 or CLIT1009 or CLIT1010.Assessment: 100% coursework.CLIT1010.Ways of thinking about culture and society (6 credits)This course introduces ways of thinking about culture and society in an international frame. “Culture”and “society” are familiar yet difficult terms. The main purpose of this class is to arrive at a sense ofwhy each of them represents something important, something that speaks to everyday, real life andnot just the dominant accounts of what is going on. It will introduce students to some of the key terms,techniques, and interpretive strategies that enable them to think about culture and society in complexways. Thinking in this sense means being familiar with a range of concepts, issues, and “isms” andbeing able to relate them to other texts and problems. But to think is also to read. Thus we will alsostudy the ways of reading in its broadest and narrowest senses – how we make sense of texts andproblems and do “readings” of them. To do this we must place texts into their contexts and analyzethem rhetorically. This includes the ability to do “practical criticism” or “close reading” – to makeadvanced sense of the words on the page, or what people actually say and do.Texts from China and elsewhere will illustrate these ways of thinking. These range from literary,popular, and historical texts to visual ones like film and architecture as well as the practices ofeveryday life. The common emphasis is on the ways of thinking that can then be carried over intolater classes in Comparative Literature.Note: Students who want to major or minor in Comparative Literature are required to takeCLIT1008 or CLIT1009 or CLIT1010.Assessment: 100% coursework.COURSES IN THE SUBSEQUENT YEARS :Students taking nine or more 6-credit courses in the department must have taken at least one of thefirst-year courses. The following courses - or from time to time other courses - will be offered, asteaching arrangements permit. They contain Foundational, Survey, Advanced Topical, Seminar,Research and Internship courses.